I had fun with a project that I stumbled into last month. I haven’t really worked with my hands in a long time, and created an opportunity to get back into the game. A few years ago my dad gave me the first rifle that his father ever owned. It was a single shot, bolt action .22 Remington Target master. As I remember, the story goes that he bought the gun for $8 at Sears and Roebuck when he was just a boy. My guess is that the gun is between 60 and 70 years old now. It was a simple and beautiful gun for what it was. This little gun was very accurate and fun to plink around with.
When my Dad gave it to me it wasn’t looking very good. He tried to re-finish the gun and something didn’t work out as planned. The finish was “gummy” and the color was a solid, dull opaque brown. I think he tried to remove the old finish and when it started to go wrong he stopped the process. The plan was for me to give the gun to a buddy of mine at the drop zone who refinished gun stocks. Well, the dropzone closed and I never got the gun to my friend.
Last month I pulled her out and was just going to oil her down to keep her in good condition. I wondered if the stock just needed a light sanding to get rid of the gummy finish and bring back some of her old beauty. Well, sanding and wet sanding with high grit sand paper took the gum off, but it was clear that the gun was going to need a lot of work and a real re-finishing. I did a few quick searches and found the Miles Gilbert Advanced Stock Re-Finishing Kit and ordered it for all of $29.
I have to say I was very impressed with the kit. Not only did it have everything you need to totally strip down and re-finish a gun, but it came with a DVD that walks you step by step through a process that would otherwise be very difficult to follow correctly if you have never done it before. If you have basic woodworking (very basic) skills and are not afraid to spend a little bit of time on a project you will love this kit and have great results for less than $30.
So I spent a few weeks working for 30 mins to an hour per night going through all of the steps (30?) to re-finish the gun. I spent lots of time sanding, finish removing, sealing, waiting, filling, more sanding and finally putting on the finish. I ended up putting about 20 coats of finish on the gun and I must admit that I was impressed and proud of the results. The gun’s beautiful walnut wood grain was back to her full beauty. The gun was protected and beautiful again. It looked brand new! I’m sure I’ll do better on my next re-finishing, but was more than happy with the results of my first attempt on a family heirloom.
I was able to give it back to my Dad for his birthday at the end of March. The look on his face when he saw the gun and realized what it was, was priceless and worth all of the time that it took to recondition the gun.
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